This might seem strange for those who have come here from my other dalliances into fanfiction, but my first fandom was Pokémon. I started, like so many others, with the anime dub, and then read the manga, and then my father got me a copy of Pokémon Crystal for my sixth birthday and I haven't looked back since. Most of my current interaction with the Pokémon franchise is through the games and I haven't quite had the time to go back to the anime, what with university and etc. life. Hopefully you all enjoy what I've spun and plan on for the future, despite all of the initial twists that I've decided to throw in right from the get-go. Please review so I know what you're enjoying (or not)!

Some notes for this iteration:

Ash is six years old at the beginning of this story. Minors are not allowed to be trainers unless they are accompanied by an appropriate guardian (non-minor) or considered emancipated. The traditional custom is to be emancipated at around twelve to thirteen in order to go on some sort of trainer's pilgrimage, whatever that means for the child in question. As this is the custom, most people are accustomed to having travelers of the age ask for lodging or help and are just as accustomed to giving such things.

I'm not very good at cartoon writing and therefore have decided just to write this in a more serious/realistic tone rather than try and play in a genre that I don't feel comfortable in. This might turn the Pokémon universe into a harsher world; so be it.

The League is just one of many organizations that work together to hold the regions together.

Canon has been thrown out of the window for this completely. This includes captures and friends and enemies and characterizations and plot. I try my best, however, not to stray too far out of character for anyone.

Ash is, for lack of a better word, feral at the beginning of this story. He might take a little while to break free of that. That being said, he is not just some OC that I've thrown Ash's name onto— I do strive to make him Ash-like whenever possible.

I'm at heart a scientist and try my best to describe things like Pokémon scientifically. If I get ramble-y through one of the professors, you have my most sincere apologies for your boredom but not for writing it.

Most human beings in this world speak slight variants on the same language, which is known as Universal.

An explosion. People shouting. One man in particular glowering into the epicenter of a conflagration that swept unnaturally quickly throughout the facility. Once a pristine, perfect laboratory, whatever it was in the metaphorical eye of the storm was systematically destroying everything with a single thought and a roaring tongue of flame. Gone was their data, their studies, their findings. They wouldn't quite have to start from scratch; there were backups, logs, memories if they were desperate, but they had been set back by almost a decade by this methodical yet wanton destruction. It didn't help that those years of work were marked by their unnaturally quick progression—work that would have taken close to twenty years had been distilled into five, and now all of that was threatened by the very thing that they were studying.

The man snarled, refusing to back down even when his subordinates yelled and pulled desperately at his arms in an effort to convince him to run, too cowardly to yell at him but too emptily loyal to abandon him. He ran a hand through his short black hair—a nervous tic, one that the grunts around him knew would signal trouble. A beige feline creature stood at his side, ears slicked back in an expression of wounded pride and fury. The red gem on its forehead gleamed, flickering with some unseen power.

Within the flames, a small boy curled himself around a furry yellow creature whose cheeks sparked as it chattered angrily at the crowd of people on the other side of their fiery shield. A blue canid that would have come up to his waist were the boy standing was in position in front of him, red eyes narrowed and fists up, and in his arms lay a brown shelled creature that scuttled against his grip. A strange shimmering of physical data occasionally coalesced in front of the boy, throwing up a green hexagonal defense whenever the flames licked too close to the entourage. In front of them all was a purple feline creature, arms outstretched in a defensive position, who had thrown a transparent bubble around them all before grabbing the flames that the yellow creature had begun with nothing more than a spark and throwing them across the room. A smirk was slowly beginning to stretch across this final creature's face as he extended his wrist and marveled at how easily the fire obeyed its command.

All was going according to plan.

The man shouted at them. The boy didn't understand what the man was trying to say, but he did understand that the man was anger-fire-loom and sneak-hide-kind and that neither he nor his friends wanted to go with the man. The purple creature felt the boy's wave of energy wash over him and speak of 'worry-doubt-trust' and 'quick-time-gone' and understood that he couldn't revel in the destruction as he wanted to. With one final sweep of his hands, the purple creature turned back around and picked the boy up, snarling at their other companions to "close-stay-linger time-leave-now".

The bubble disappeared. The man and the grunts surged forward. The cream-colored felid spat out star-shaped energy bolts straight towards where the purple figure huddled.

Just before they would have been hit with the stars, the strange gathering vanished.

Atop a craggy mountaintop, a man wrapped himself more firmly in his cape before continuing down the slope. The fierce breezes that naturally swept through the Tohjo Mountains and into Indigo Plateau felt brisker than normal, and Dragon Master Lance briefly understood why it was that the beasts whose respect he commanded were so easily quelled by a simple snowfall. Shivering, he held his hands in front of his mouth and let out a huff of a breath. He tried to catch as much of the warm air as he could, rubbing his hands together. In front of him scrabbled a small, long-necked creature that seemed to ignore the chill as she darted out in front of him. The creature pawed at the strange black scales that covered her eyes before shaking her entire body and moving to keep bounding forwards.

"Deino!" he called out. The small creature paused and turned back to him with a high-pitched snarl. "There's no hurry. We'll get to the training grounds soon enough."

Deino churred in response. Lance allowed himself a moment of frustration that he couldn't read the Pokémon's body language quite yet. This dragon had been a gift given by Dragon Master Drayden of Unova, and he had only just managed to convince the little dragon to trust him with her training. Now that the young dragon had met Lance's trio of Dragonites as well as his well-trained collection of other dragons, Deino was determined to join their ranks.

Lance just hoped that the enthusiasm that Deino showed wouldn't wane quite as much as he suspected that it would after they started training.

The small dragon made a cough-scoffing noise but paced in a tight circle to try and keep herself warm while Lance quickly walked over. The second that he caught up with her, Deino surged forward again, gleefully racing along the path. Lance just sighed and moved slightly more quickly to keep up with her.

Just before Deino truly entered the training grounds, she froze in place. Lance glanced over her [trembling legs, stock-still posture indicating her heightened alert state, the scales slowly beginning to bristle along her spine] and deftly unhooked a Pokéball from his belt. He didn't release the deadly monster in the ball yet, moving forward with the comfort of the metal sphere against his hand.

"This is League property!" he called in. "Anyone without the proper identification is trespassing and will be prosecuted as such. Show yourself!"

Deino growled at his side. He wasn't sure just how helpful she would be in her untrained state but he appreciated that she was trying.

There was no response. Lance looked back over at Deino, who seemed to be cautiously entering the space, sniffing around for signs of life. His eyes narrowed as she appeared to lock on to one specific corner of the training site that bordered on the natural forests of the Tohjo Mountains. He simply clicked the release button of the Pokéball.

Red light flooded the space as a behemoth of a creature was summoned from within the device. The light coalesced into a winged lizard that was partially hunched in on himself, foreclaws practically scraping the ground. Lance's Charizard was one of the largest of his kind, and his more potently draconic blood was more than observable in the burnished copper hue of his scales and the intense fury with which his tail flame burned a fierce red. Charizard seemed briefly uncertain of why Lance had released him before his pupils constricted into angry slits and his head whipped in the same direction as Deino had been facing before she squeaked and hid behind Lance's far less formidable form. Charizard growled, the deep rumble in the back of his throat echoing against the ground and into Lance's form.

"We know where you are! Reveal yourself!" Lance commanded, holding his shoulders stiffer still.

He heard some kind of snuffling before another Pokémon stuck its head out from behind a tree uncertainly. The Pikachu that slowly emerged— male, according to the shape of its tail— didn't seem surprised at the gathering of figures in the training grounds, choosing instead to hold firm despite standing on shaking legs. The Pikachu chattered a bit, the strange noises somehow mirroring the common species name. To Lance's surprise, Charizard gave a quiet snarl back and seemed to relax, standing up further on his hindlimbs to stand at his formidable ten-foot height and attempting to peer around the trees before having his attention drawn again by a suddenly more annoyed or angry set of noises from the Pikachu. Deino peeked around and gave an uncertain chirr before ducking away again when the Pikachu seemed to look over at her.

"I should get a translator for you guys," Lance said with a sigh. Charizard turned back to him and huffed in amusement, his mouth curling into a toothy smirk at his trainer's exasperated frustration.

In the moment of inattention, another Pokémon joined the Pikachu outside of the trees, this one a rather nervous looking Riolu. After softly barking at Pikachu, the Riolu ducked back into the trees.

"Look, you can't stay in those trees. It's dangerous in the mountains for creatures like you, and we train here, besides," Lance said. He moved to walk over to the trees only to be stopped by Pikachu's frantic squeaks and Charizard's warning growl.

Before Lance could ask either creature what was wrong, he saw the Riolu return, this time with more companions. One, a purple, humanoid Pokémon the height of a preteen child that Lance had never encountered before, was hovering in the air by a couple of inches and carrying another, a small, sickly looking boy wearing not much more than a tattered hospital gown. A quick glance had Lance estimating his age at around that of an academy student, and he seemed to be cradling some sort of round, rock-like object. Alarmed, Lance took a single step towards the strange gathering, Charizard's attempts at waylaying him ignored. The Riolu crouched into a defensive position in front of the unknown Pokémon and the boy, but Lance wasn't deterred by the gesture.

What did deter him, however, was the sudden loud ringing in his ears and the pressure that began to exert itself on the sides of his head. He cried out in surprise and pain and sank to his knees, pressing his palms against his temples. He could hear Charizard roar in anger, but it seemed worlds away until the pain stopped and he could hear a strange series of grunts. When he looked up, Lance saw the boy's hand on the unknown Pokémon's face in a strangely tender gesture, and he was making the noises, the animalistic sounds that the Pokémon seemed to be listening to. The boy's head turned towards Lance and Charizard and he made another set of sounds at them. Lance could see in Charizard's sudden shift in posture (stiff neck, foreclaws held up slightly, widened eyes) that he wasn't expecting the direct conversation, and it was with an uncertainty that the Charizard began to growl back, snorting and clicking as Lance had heard him do with Dragonite or Garchomp.

It was only when the boy seemed to respond to Charizard that Lance realized that his strange tongue was a rudimentary attempt at imitating Pokémon speech with the limited palate of the human mouth— rudimentary but successful. The boy also seemed to understand full well what Charizard was saying in kind.

As Lance contemplated what this could mean, the rounded object in the boy's arms suddenly twitched, and Lance started back when yellow claw-like appendages began to emerge and swipe towards him wildly. The boy paused his conversation with Charizard to coo at the strange creature, running a hand between two small openings in what Lance recognized now was a shell. It calmed from its sudden agitation, clicking against the boy's chest as it settled back down. The boy shivered from the temperature, breathing against his limbs in an attempt to warm himself up.

Deino butted Lance's leg with her head, a high-pitched whine echoing in the back of her throat. He couldn't tell if she wanted him to do something about the trespassers or just train. Lance knew that if it was the latter she would be severely disappointed.

"Charizard, please inform our guests that we mean no harm and that I will escort them back into the League building and away from this weather," he said. The large winged lizard snorted hot air into his trainer's face to warm him up before turning back to the gathering and growling what must have been an approximation of Lance's message. The boy's brow furrowed at Charizard's noises and he glanced at the purple Pokémon holding him. The creature's eyes narrowed at Lance, clearly distrustful. The Riolu and Pikachu huddled at the Pokémon's feet, obviously deferential.

The air seemed to shimmer slightly as a strangely amorphous being materialized in front of Lance's eyes, making him start back. Charizard snapped at it with his fangs, which seemed to give it some pause. The gathering of foreign Pokémon didn't seem shocked by its appearance, and the boy seemed to reach his hand out towards it, a measure of uncertainty and what could have been exasperation on his face. The being buzzed in Lance's ears, the unnatural screech sounding almost like the clicking of computer keys and the flipping of endless tiles. As abruptly as it appeared in front of him, the presence seemed to fade before turning into a flickering that came to life in front of the Riolu, who swiped at it, snarling quietly.

The purple Pokémon glared towards the interruption, cowing the strange heat-mirage-like figure to coalescing in the Riolu's arms. Lance wasn't sure whether it was proper for him to be amused by this interaction.

"We mean no harm," Lance repeated, uncertain how to assert his point and his lack of an agenda further. The Pokémon caught and held his gaze. He felt something begin to poke around his surface thoughts, searching for the hidden guilt that would expose him. Perhaps if Lance wasn't the man he was with the history or acquaintances that he had, he would be shocked by this, but the immediate migraine from earlier had prepared him for this eventuality.

He however wasn't prepared for the presence curling into his mind with sensations and thoughts foreign to his that spoke of 'no-betrayal-uncertain haze-on-mountain helpless-drifting-water help-help-help-help-help-help-help' until the final feelings of desperation began to overrule him. Lance merely fought to regain his conscious thought, closing his eyes to break eye contact. Charizard rumbled his concern quietly into Lance's ear, and he patted the winged lizard to let him know that he was okay.

"We can help you," Lance said firmly. The Pokémon looked at him. The boy seemed to have dozed off, the Pokémon he was cradling crawling further up his chest. The purple Pokémon looked down at the boy, an internal war clear in its expression, before it turned to Charizard and nodded. Charizard huffed at Lance and turned to start down the mountain path.

Deino whined again. Lance merely patted her head in apology before leading the entire strange party back to the League buildings, sending Deino ahead of him with a note that asked someone to clear a guest suite for the motley group. It was still early enough in the day for the main Headquarters to be mostly empty, but Lance could see the wandering figure of Bruno, the Fighting Master of Kanto, wandering through the hallways, trailed closely by a small bipedal bear. The Dragon Master nodded to his colleague, who merely raised an eyebrow at the oncoming entourage.

"Lance, may I ask what is happening here?" the burly man asked, crossing his arms. The Pancham following him mimicked the gesture and the furrow in his brow.

"What, no hello?" Lance quipped. Bruno seemed unamused. "I found this group concealing themselves in the few trees in the training grounds. They didn't seem like the type to truly be trespassing on League grounds, so I'm going to put them in a suite and let them rest before finding out why they were here."

Bruno looked over the group, expression turning curious when he saw the purple Pokémon, who was stiff with apprehension as it held the boy in its arms closer to its chest. The Pokémon noticed Bruno's interest in his cargo and curled around the boy, lips drawing upwards into a snarl. Bruno met the aggression with an impassive look before nodding to Lance and walking away silently. Pancham seemed more interested in the motley crew but loyally continued to tail the Master.

There were no further interactions until Lance found Deino sitting in front of the prepared suite and thanked her for her help. Deino chirped happily before standing on her hind legs and poking her Pokéball herself, transforming into red light that was quickly whisked away in the transportation unit. When Lance turned back to the entourage following him, he noticed that the Pikachu and Riolu were staring at the Pokéball with something akin to horror and the purple Pokémon staring at it with some look of grotesque interest. The boy wasn't looking at the Pokéball at all, choosing instead to stare directly at Lance.

This was the first time that Lance truly got a good look at the boy. He seemed malnourished but not starving, weak but from lack of movement rather than lack of nutrition. If he stood, he would perhaps be slightly shorter than average but not by a noticeable amount. His complexion seemed tanned despite its ill pallor, there were strange lightning-bolt-shaped birthmarks on his cheeks, and his hair was a long unruly black mop on his head. The way that he looked at Lance reminded the Dragon Master of a wild Pokémon judging a possible new trainer—wild and defiant yet open and cautiously interested. Lance merely bowed his head to the group, gesturing for them to enter the suite that had been cleared out by cleaning staff.

The purple Pokémon looked at Lance for a while, and he could feel it probing through his mind, trying to find any sign of guilt or double-crossing. When nothing emerged, the Pokémon uncertainly floated into the room, followed by its smaller companions.

Lance glanced in after them. It was a standard-sized League suite, which perhaps made it slightly more extravagant than the usual apartments. It consisted of a main room, a bed room, and a washroom, and it took the purple Pokémon little to no time to find the queen-sized bed and gently put down the boy in its arms. The other Pokémon began to find some freedom to clamber around the room. Lance merely stood by the suite's small kitchenette, watching the Riolu poke at the screen installed into the wall for communication and the Pikachu play with the blinds. The strange brown shape that the boy had been cradling scuttled across the floor suddenly like a strange version of the cleaning robots used by the staff. The strange being that accompanied the other Pokémon seemed to merge with the screen and the sharp features of a Porygon were visible on the other side. The Riolu barked at it while the Pikachu huffed in amusement, tail twitching.

That made Lance blink. He mused on how to acquire a Porygon adaptor without anyone on IT questioning why he would need it so that he could grant the being a physical body of its own.

He shook that thought out of his head. "I will be in my office," he announced to the room at large. "I assume you would like to rest. If you are in need of anything at all, please don't hesitate to find me." With one final nod, Lance turned and left the suite, feeling it automatically lock behind him.

"Well, well, Lance, you don't do things by halves, do you."

Lance started upon hearing the voice at his right but quickly regained his composure when he registered who it was that was talking to him. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Madam Agatha," he said, looking over his shoulder to see the aged lady standing in the hall. He eyed her intricate ebony cane, knowing full well that the Ghost Master didn't truly need it to walk and merely used it as a vessel for a being far more powerful than he could hope to command. Her shadow quivered in the steady light, and the very air around her felt chilling.

Agatha snorted. "Please, I think I've lived long enough to tear that title to shreds," she said. Her shadow blinked at Lance, a multi-eyed sea of unfathomable depths. "What I mean, foolish boy, is that you've brought a feral child into the heart of the League itself with no knowledge of where he comes from. The League is no place for a child to live, much less a wild one."

"I can care for the child, Agatha," Lance said impatiently.

"Can you?" she shot back. "You're preparing to take on the mantle of Tohjo Champion, representing not just your native Johto but the Kanto region as well. You've been struggling to find time to yourself to simply interact with your Pokémon team—you went to train this morning and couldn't even do that. How is that Deino of yours going to grow when you can barely take care of her?" She tapped the floor with her cane, and her substantial shadow began to wind up it in a swirling mass. "You had a luxury in training to claim current Master status over Scorpia in that the challenges of being Master weren't forced upon you. Now you have those additional charges. Do you know how you're going to balance all of that, child or no? This is no place or time to have a soft heart, Lance of Blackthorn."

Lance grimaced at Agatha's words, knowing both that she was correct and that he was confident that he could prove her wrong. Agatha recognized the gleam in his eyes and gave a dry cackle.

"Listen boy," she said, reaching a hand out to pat the substantial shadow lovingly, "this may be a trial that you will only understand once you've failed at it. Despite how it sounds, I am not trying to stop you, merely giving you a warning. It does not do to linger in overconfidence and dreams. As soon as this whole operation starts going south, just pull the plug on it and call in someone more prepared."

Lance bristled at the implied criticism that he wasn't competent enough for this task but couldn't respond before Agatha turned and began walking back down the hallway that she came from. Her shadow emerged slightly, lingering in the bipedal, spiky shape of one of her Gengar that stared back at Lance for a bit before bursting into a too-wide grin, giving an unearthly howl of a laugh, and merging with her presence once more.

The door behind Lance opened, and he turned to see the strange purple Pokémon, who had opened the door just enough to peek out from behind. There was curiosity and a slight haze of fear in its gaze. Lance could tell that the Pokémon had heard practically everything that he and Agatha had said to each other.

"I won't abandon you just because she thinks I should," Lance said, hoping that his words got across to the strange creature.

It said nothing in response, merely taking in Lance's entire form, glancing up and down as if trying to memorize it.

"Please, believe me."

Silence.

Lance looked to the ground, frustrated in his lack of ability to communicate with the Pokémon. He decided to make one final attempt before retiring to his office to catch up on whatever paperwork he had to complete. If he was going to have the boy and his Pokémon companions under his care, he might as well make it official.

"Can I at least get yours and the boy's name?" Lance asked. "We need to get you both registered as my dependents for as long as you are here."

The Pokémon looked at him, seemingly startled at the frank way he was asking the question. The mind prodding felt sensationless in its initial form, searching for any ulterior motives yet again. Lance briefly wondered what happened to the Pokémon for it to be so untrusting of him. The Pokémon's brow furrowed at the sympathy and compassion of the concern, eyes darting back to Lance's face to try and find some outer sign of falsehood.

Lance felt an uncertain foreign presence in his surface thoughts. 'Son-of-Mew he-of-mew two-of-Mew two-of-Mew, Mew-two Mew-two Mew-two' began to repeat on loop.

"Mewtwo?" Lance repeated. The Pokémon hesitantly nodded, pointing at himself as he did so.

"And the boy?" Lance asked softly.

Mewtwo seemed a little more reluctant, but Lance felt him poke into his mind again. 'Dying-final-fire,' Mewtwo said first, 'final-fire-remnant, last-fire, fire-death-remnant, soot-grey-wood, fire-to-ash, ash-ash-ash-ash-ash-ash—'

"Ash?" Lance said, cutting Mewtwo's line of thought off once it settled on one central idea.

Mewtwo nodded again.

"Thank you, Mewtwo," Lance said, giving the Pokémon a shallow bow. Mewtwo seemed surprised by this courtesy and mirrored it as best as he could. Lance just smiled slightly before leaving for his office, allowing Mewtwo to watch him disappear into the hallway.

Perhaps Agatha had one thing correct: there were other people that he was going to have to reach out to in order to comfort the newcomers and help them adapt to the civilized life that they would need to at least pretend to live if they were going to stay in the League.

It took another couple of weeks before Lance saw Ash or Mewtwo again. He was told by housekeeping that none of that strange group had ever been seen leaving the suite and that they did not dare set foot in after a maid opened the door, surprising the Pikachu enough to wildly blast a bolt of electricity towards her. Suffice it to say, the staff was more than happy to just leave meals for the group outside of the door and pick up the used dishes afterwards. They had spoken of how the silverware was left neatly untouched while the plates seemed to be licked clean, perhaps as a snide comment for Lance to correct his new charge's manners, but the man simply didn't have time to check in on the boy. Agatha's words echoed in Lance's head, but he just irritably shook them off.

Deino stood by his side again. She stood a little bit taller, her enthusiasm not dampened at all but her draconic pride forcing her to stand at his side as her own charge.

It never failed to amuse Lance how quickly his dragons became his guard dogs and self-assigned caretakers.

He knocked quietly on the door of the suite, shuffling the parcel under his arms a bit to make sure it didn't slip out. He felt a wave of something wash over him, probing his mind. While he hadn't undergone this in a fortnight, he knew exactly what (or who) it was.

"Mewtwo, it's me, Lance. I need to speak with you about something." The wave paused before retreating, and the door in front of Lance opened a crack. After waiting what he felt was a prudent amount of time, Lance carefully pushed the door open a little bit further.

The suite was less of a mess than he assumed it would be after a fortnight of destruction. The sheets of the bed had been yanked off and thrown into a pile in the corner with the pillows, leaving nothing but a plain mattress. Lance was mildly surprised to find that the boy (and Pokémon) apparently knew something about indoor plumbing because they had all apparently washed off all of the grime that he remembered coating them at some point in the past few days. Ash was even wearing the simple t-shirt and shorts that he had requested to be delivered. The boy was curled up with the strange brown Pokémon that Lance now recognized as a Kabuto in his lap, with Pikachu and Riolu snuggled up to him on either side. Porygon was once again on the monitor screen. Mewtwo was staring straight at Lance from his place by the others, though his body language still read as relaxed rather than at attention like it might have been just two weeks prior. Lance wondered how quickly it took Mewtwo to realize that he could be trusted.

Lance quickly looked away, trying to make his tall figure seem less imposing. He decided to just sit on the ground farther away, letting his package fall ungracefully to the ground beside him. Deino walked up behind him and began to calmly start chewing on his hair. He made a few halfhearted attempts to shake her off before relenting and allowing the little dragon to gnaw at will.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you all," Lance said softly.

All of the inhabitants of the room looked at him with similar cautious but relaxed expressions.

"I wanted to bring you a few things that will help avoid questions in the future." Lance undid the parcel he brought with him and first took out a couple of apples and miscellaneous berries. "But first, I thought you might want something more natural than the food provided for us."

Mewtwo's eyes glowed a brief moment before the fruit flew over towards the collection of Pokémon and boy, all of whom grabbed at it and began to tear into it. Lance watched the ravenous feast with some level of awe. Never before had he seen a human eat an entire apple, core, stem, and all.

"I'll, uh, try and bring some around more often then," he said, trying not to burst out laughing at how the boy and Pikachu filled their cheeks.

'Happy-lots-grateful' ran through his head. Lance nodded to Mewtwo in acknowledgement.

"These are the more boring bits," Lance said, taking out a few papers. "These are the emancipation documents. They'll allow you to legally travel wherever you want in registered League regions—so Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and perhaps Alola if negotiations go well. All that should mean for you is that you can go wherever you please without anyone bothering you or trying to bring you back anywhere, even if you're registered as dependents under my name until you—Ash—comes of age. I'll need a signature from Ash to file these away properly."

Ash looked startled that Lance knew his name and shot Mewtwo a dirty look when the purple Pokémon looked away innocently. Lance could practically hear the felid whistling his guiltlessness.

Lance merely held out the papers along with a pen. "I just need you to put some marking on the three lines with x's next to them," he said as encouragingly as he could manage."

Ash awkwardly crawled over and reached out to take the papers from Lance. Rather than just scribbling by the lines that Lance had marked, he seemed to be taking his time scrutinizing the print on the sheets. Mewtwo had now turned to peer over Ash's shoulder and was equally engrossed, and Pikachu and Riolu seemed to be equally curious but in a much emptier way.

When Ash finally lifted the pen, scribbled on the paper, and handed them back to Lance, the man was thunderstruck to find that Ash had managed to scrawl his name somewhat legibly on the sheets. He looked up at the boy, who seemed more worried now.

"Can you understand Universal, Ash?" he asked softly.

The boy looked away briefly before looking back and reluctantly nodding.

"Well, that makes my life slightly easier," Lance said, deciding not to delve too deeply into that. He put the papers down and picked up a red device, flipping it open. "This is a machine derived from something called a Pokémon Index, or a Pokédex for short, and a cross-transceiver. It can be used both to look up any necessary information and communicate to anyone within a rather large radius, though you can power each half down to strengthen the other half. They also double as identification for Trainers. It's standard to issue one of these to any new Trainer in the field, and they can upgrade them to suit their adventuring style with apps you can download or physical cards that can be installed. It's all up to you how you choose to customize it." He handed the machine to Ash, who took it and started poking buttons on it.

It was a strange circular machine that had two panels that opened on the top and bottom, with panels that extended horizontally. A screen booted up on the middle panel and the top two projected to form a small three-dimensional model of light. Ash seemed mesmerized by this before blinking out of his self-imposed hypnosis and hurriedly closing the machine.

Lance took his own out of his pocket. "May I demonstrate how this works?" he asked. At Ash's nod (mirrored by Mewtwo), Lance deftly opened up his own and pointed the bottom of the middle panel at Deino for a split second before flicking it to its horizontal position again. The projector booted up its stock image of a Deino, complete with small message boxes that described the Pokémon's physiology with helpful lines drawing to different parts.

"As you can see, you can learn a lot about a Pokémon you meet solely from this, as well as access a list of notes that have already been observed worldwide by trainers and researchers alike." Ash stared at the more battered version of the machine in Lance's hands before looking at the one in his. He gingerly opened the panels up and waited for the screen to boot up. When it did, he gave a quiet cry before turning expectantly to the others. Pikachu's ears twitched before he ran up curiously to Ash. The boy awkwardly angled the bottom of the device towards the yellow Pokémon, activating the camera installed there. Pikachu's model was projected over the top of the middle panel, with notes on the general species as well as the particular specimen. Pikachu chirped, leaping onto Ash's shoulder to peer at the model. He ran his paw through the model, chattering when the projection blinked unstably.

Lance felt a nudge at his side. Riolu had walked up to him and was staring curiously at his own Pokédex.

"Do you want me to scan you?" he asked.

The Pokémon nodded, obviously intrigued.

Lance scanned Riolu in, crouching down to keep himself as non-threatening as possible. "See, this data—" [[Riolu, the Emanation Pokémon. It uses the shapes of auras, which change according to emotion, to communicate with others—]] "—is more universal. All Riolu will trigger this message. What is more personal for you—" [[This Riolu is female and most likely of the Lonely nature. Probable level- 15. Moves known- Foresight, Quick Attack, Endure, Counter, Feint, Force Palm, Meteor Mash, Aura Sphere.]] "—huh?"

Lance looked to his Pokédex blinking at the last move listed. He numbly wondered if the Pokédex had somehow glitched out.

The Riolu quietly barked at him, tipping her head sideways when he looked over to her.

"Most research states that Riolu can't learn Aura Sphere," Lance explained. "There's never been any evidence of it."

"Aura?" Lance froze at the rusty voice that croaked at him. Ash was looking over at him intently, Pikachu staring at Lance as well. Mewtwo was still; had Lance not been able to see his eyes darting back and forth, he would have thought Mewtwo was immobilized by something.

When Lance didn't respond, Ash spoke again. "Amber can use aura. Can't everyone?"

Lance blinked. "Ah—no, not from what I know. The last recorded human who used aura was centuries ago and perished trying to harness it for good. It's been illegal to practice aura or experiment with it since the League's inception."

"League?" Lance could have kicked himself for forgetting that Ash probably had little to no knowledge of politics.

"Never mind that, I'll teach you about it later. What did you mean, everyone can use aura?"

Ash glanced over to Mewtwo; the Kabuto had crawled back into Ash's lap like some sort of strange pet. Mewtwo just nodded to Ash (Lance took a moment to preen at the way Mewtwo seemed to trust him now).

The boy lifted his hand, palm up and towards Lance. Before the man's disbelieving eyes, bluish light seemed to coalesce and swirl into a small sphere of energy that gathered above his palm.

As soon as the aura had built up substantially, Ash turned, standing up in the process and sending Kabuto scuttling to the floor in a panic. With a practiced flick of the wrist, he sent the blob of aura flying towards Mewtwo.

"What are you—" Lance was cut off by a sharp sizzling sound as the aura hit and dissipated against Mewtwo's psychic barrier, a bubble-like creation which then flickered out of existence with the Pokémon's hand lowering. A moment of silence passed in the room.

"…huh. Okay. I'm not going to say anything about this," Lance decided. Mewtwo's shoulders sagged slightly in relief.

"Now that the excitement's over, it's time to get back to the paperwork. First, here's a gift from me, unrelated to any of this business." He showed Ash the strange crystalline prism filled with inlaid wires and other kinds of circuitry. "This is informally referred to as a Porygon adaptor. Your friend should be able to manifest in a more physical form with this. I can show you how to install it in a bit, but do you think it wants to try?"

Ash took the prism from Lance's palm, his eyes wide. He turned towards the occupied screen in the room and gave a wordless croon, holding the crystal out. The angular figure on the screen flickered out of existence and the strange aberration on the air (Lance now recognized that it was manipulating the ambient light in the space with its strange incorporeal form) fluidly darted across and into the crystal. The angular pink and blue bird-like creature from the screen soon flickered into existence in front of Ash, giving a staticky chirp of happiness as it whizzed around him.

Lance showed Ash where on the Pokédex he could install the Porygon projector (a small panel revealed a place to slot it in) before bracing himself for the next conversation.

"Ash, you're not going to like what I have to say next, most likely," he started hesitantly. "If my suspicions are correct, the Pokémon that are with you aren't registered to anyone and technically considered 'wild.' That means that under the laws of the League, anyone can simply walk up and choose to attempt to capture them, and if they succeed, then the Pokémon is considered under their ownership."

Mewtwo's hackles rose and his eyes narrowed. The Pokémon seemed to know where Lance was getting at and didn't like it at all. Still, Lance soldiered on.

"In order to register the Pokémon such that no one can take them from you, you'll have to capture them yourself using these." Lance brought out a handful of Pokéballs. Ash's eyes widened as he stared at them. Lance was almost surprised by the vehement hatred that he glared at the devices with; such a dark feeling didn't seem right on this young boy's face.

"They don't have to stay in there," Lance quickly clarified. "They merely have to be caught and then they can be released again—there's no law stating otherwise, and a lot of Trainers like having their companions with them when traveling through the regions. Pokéballs—these things—have their own uses as well. When a Pokémon is put in one, they're put into a state of stasis that slows down any injury that they've sustained so that they can get medical treatment much more quickly. Some kinds of Pokéballs have a calming property encoded into them such to calm any agitation. They come in different strengths, but they all react only to the elemental energy given off by Pokémon, so it's not like you'll find a Pokéball somewhere with a human inside. Does all of that make sense?"

"Bad people are in Pokéballs," Ash muttered.

"How do you mean, Ash?" Lance asked gently, putting the shrunken Pokéballs onto the ground to try and make himself less threatening still.

"Whenever they didn't like what we did, they would come out of Pokéballs and hurt us. They were bad to us," Ash said.

Lance felt Mewtwo enter his mind again—'pain-last-poison ground-shake-fear stab-strike-bleed bleed-bleed-tear mind-scream-stop stop-never-pain' ran through Lance's head, images of towering, snarling, slavering beasts slashing the air by his face, a single second of intense agony in his upper arm that immediately was dulled down to a quiet but constant ache that faded when the thoughts shifted to a different sensation of a more shattering, widespread pain. He gritted his teeth but endured the onslaught, trying to understand what the two of them together were imparting. Pikachu and Riolu chattered as well, and though their words made no sense to Lance, he could hear the fervent emotion that they spoke with.

"I assure you," Lance said, "that no Pokémon enters a Pokéball good and comes out bad. They aren't corrupting tools; they're meant more for registration and convenience. Perhaps some engineer somewhere has created a device that's meant to make Pokémon evil, but these won't do that."

Ash continued to glare at the Pokéballs on the ground.

To Lance's surprise, Deino chirped at them. She had stopped messing with his hair in favor of laying her head in his lap a while before, but now she stood up and cautiously walked towards the wild boy and his Pokémon friends. Pikachu and Riolu were staring at her as though she had grown her second head already, but Mewtwo seemed intrigued by what she was saying. Deino seized up suddenly before turning to him, shivering slightly out of nervousness, but she continued to call out to them, perhaps defending Lance, perhaps telling them of her own experience with the technology. At some point, Deino turned to Lance and churred at him, leaning down to nudge Lance's hand towards his belt when he didn't seem to understand what she was saying. Lance detached Deino's Pokéball and held it in his palm towards her. Rather than tapping the button as he expected her to, Deino reached over and picked the ball up in her mouth, walking over to the strange group. She carefully put it on the ground before giving another set of cries, an impassioned speech.

Pikachu continued to look unimpressed, while Riolu seemed slightly more interested in what Deino was saying.

Deino finally looked around at her audience before just quietly chirping one last time and nudging the button on the Pokéball. Deino's form flickered into red light that was swept into the device, which shut with a clean snap before rolling over slightly.

Kabuto scuttled over and poked at the sphere. Before Ash could get to Kabuto and scoop the Pokémon up, it poked at the button, sending Deino back out with a futuristic whoosh. Deino shook her head to clear it from being sent out of stasis so quickly, and Lance quickly cut in and called her over before more Pokéball experimentation could be done. Ash watched the dragon obediently run over to him and nudge his leg for attention as if waiting for her to suddenly turn feral and bite through half of his leg.

(He wouldn't have been surprised if that was what Ash was expecting.)

"I won't force you to use these," Lance said. "I'll leave them with you, and you can choose whether or not you want to use them. They've already been registered to that Pokédex, which is connected to you. Any Pokémon caught in them will be legally yours. It's your decision what to do with them now.

"Well, that's everything I had for you. I'll get you in the system as an emancipated minor, and we can see what you want to do from there. I'll ask the cleaning staff to change your diet a bit to fit what you used to eat. See you later, Ash."

Lance left the boy staring at the collection of spherical capsules, Mewtwo staring after him.